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Mother Tongue Other Tongue

We help facilitate this poetry competition as a celebration of cultural diversity and the numerous languages spoken in the UK.

Mother Tongue Other Tongue Competition

The Language Resource Centre helps to facilitate the acclaimed Mother Tongue Other Tongue poetry competition and celebration, in association with:

This National Laureate education project was first established by Professor Carol Ann Duffy, (UK Poet Laureate 2009-2019) in collaboration with Manchester Met University in 2010. It is a celebration of:

  • cultural diversity
  • the numerous languages that are spoken by pupils in the schools of the UK

The mother tongue element is for those:

  • school pupils who do not speak English as their first language
  • whose family home language is not English

The other tongue element is for pupils who are learning another language in school.

Imtiaz Dharker, Chancellor of Newcastle University, comments on this project: